EVENTS

Yorkshire day

I’ve taken a too brief tour of the area around Hebden Bridge today, and in particular, been to Heptonstall where, at last, I have found a church I can like. It’s one that’s crumbling, decaying, and mostly gone.

Isn’t that lovely? Nothing left but old stone, like the bones of the church.

It was also weird to see that the entire area was paved with grave stones. Everywhere you walked, you were walking over corpses.

Some of the tombstones were quite elaborate…and creepy.

You may have heard of this one.

We left to drive through pretty Yorkshire countryside, like these fields near Stansfield.

And then, of course…tea and cake.

I had to end the day with a talk. It went OK, I guess.

All thanks to Richard Carter and Maureen Brian who organized everything!

Comments

Ah, god’s own country. Or, at the very least, it’s a very nice county to live in. Hey! If you find yourself near Hull in the next few days… keep going. I mean, it’d be cool to see you do a talk here, but I don’t think it’s worth the price. Seriously, hull is a typo that was never corrected, and I don’t think I could bear the shame if you experienced my home town.

We do have more gravements though for you to explore though, so there’s always that to look forward to.

Love the cold, raw, atmospheric feel of the stone church and cemetery. Reminds me of all those old, mood-laden vampire movies of the 1960’s and early ’70’s.
Jolly ol’ England; pip-pip, cheerio, an’ all that rot.

They prettiness of the church is inversely proportionate to the zealotry of the congregation. Nice churches are filled with old ladies who don’t know what else to do on a Sunday. Ugly churches are filled with people who believe in God

Just wanted to say myself and daughter (biology student) enjoyed your lecture last night, she remarking “I wish my lecturers were that good!” Hope you enjoyed your stay in “Yorkshire” and loved your pronunciation of that word! Hurry back soon!

If you’re near Durham, I recommend visiting their cathedral. It might just be the most beautiful building I’ve ever visited, and I lived in Paris for five years.
Sure I’m an atheist but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate great architecture, even if it has been inspired by something I don’t believe in personally.

I like churches when they’ve been made into pubs or flats or night-clubs or community centres too :-) (got some of all of those nearby where I am – always nice to see lovely architecture put to good use).

I like Venice better – most of the churches are being used for other things.

As for the gravestone pavings – there isn’t necessarily a corpse under each. The stones could have been moved from another graveyard and the bones interred elsewhere – perhaps in the walls of the church, or a crypt, or a rosarium. Not that any of that matters except to people who believe ancient corpses must somehow be sacred.